Orenburg and Ural Kalmyks Under the Conditions of Transition from the Imperial Politics of Acculturation to the Soviet National Policy

The article examines the influence of the imperial policy of acculturation and the Soviet national policy that replaced it on the fate of the Orenburg and Urals Kalmyks, who were Cossacks of the Orenburg and Ural Cossack troops. This policy contributed to the Kalmyks' perception of the Cossack way of life, which was manifested in the adaptation to settled life and agriculture. A significant achievement of the imperial policy of acculturation was the growth of literacy, achieved through the training of Kalmyk children in Cossack schools. The level of integration of the Kalmyks of both ethnic groups in the Cossack community was evidenced by the practice of their appointment to command positions. The decade that began in the revolutionary year of 1917 and culminated in the resettlement of the South Urals Kalmyks in the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast was marked by a catastrophic demographic decline in the Kalmyk population of the Orenburg and Ural Cossack troops, economic devastation and its constant companions - poverty and hunger. The Civil War prevented the implementation of the project to consolidate the Orenburg Kalmyks by allocating a separate territory for them and the construction of a national village. The Urals Kalmyks, who lost three quarters of their population, mostly men, during the period of civil unrest, were subjected to national oppression by their Kazakh neighbors. With the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, the age-old dream of the Kalmyk people for the acquisition of national statehood in the form of autonomy was lost, with the abolition of the Kalmyk Khanate in 1771. Its project was approved on November 25, 1920, by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the Borders of the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast". Leaders of the young Kalmyk autonomy conducted large-scale agitation, urging all Kalmyks living outside of Kalmykia to unite with their people on a common territory. The formation of the autonomy in the lower reaches of the Volga for the Kalmyk working people and the relocation of Orenburg and Urals Kalmyks to its territory, in spite of all the difficulties associated with resettlement and adaptation in the new conditions, provided not only their national, but also physical survival. This conclusion does not deny the positive changes in the economic system and culture of Orenburg and Ural Kalmyks, which were largely the result of the policy of acculturation carried out during the imperial period. The research is supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 17-18-01008) in Orenburg State Pedagogical University.

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